Collective Governors Island

I was here 2 years ago, and came back because that time we had a great experience. This time I was there with 2 members of my family who were visiting NY for just one week. We spent a lot of money because this was supposed to be a great and memorable experience. DON'T GO, the place is in decadence.

1) The heating in the tent wasn't working well, and the heater was making this funny noise all night long. Also, one of the beds had a blanket with heating, the other not. This wasn't too bad, but the first impression was not good.

2) We had a reservation for 3. Ehen we arrived it was 3 beds, but the tent was prepared for 2 people (2 cups, 2 glass, 2 towels, etc). We had to ask for "the third" of everything. The person who was there brought a 3rd towel. So we asked for everything else, then we got a 3rd cup. At this point we didn't ask for one more glass, additional milk for coffee, etc. It's not big deal, but when you pay for good service, that's what you should get, without having to ask for everything.

3) The restaurant is TERRIBLE, DON'T GO!!!!!!!!! It was very good 2 years ago, but now it's a really BAD EXPERIENCE that will ruin your night.

It's SUPER overrated, the size of your food is a bad joke (it wouldn't be enough even for a child) and the food is cold and old. It was a chill night, so the 3 of us asked for gnocchis. It costs 33 dollars each, which would be ok for a decent amount and a warm dish. The plate was huge and cold, and in the middle of it we had a mini amount of gnocchis which were cold and old. We were still hungry after dinner (we were 3 woman, so we usually don't eat thaaaaaat much!!).

Also, the restaurant was cold and sad looking. I understand that they don't open the restaurant on the bigger tent for such few customers, and I also understand they don't serve variety of dishes during the week. But:

The restaurant at the smaller tent is not friendly at all, sad looking and so cold.

If you serve 5 options of food for dinner, PLEASE make sure it's fresh food.

If you charge $33 for a plate of gnocchis, make it a decent amount. This is not an expensive dish to prepare!!!

And PLEASE, PLEASE, make sure you serve hot food. If it is a fresh night, people are usually expecting hot dinner.

4) In general everything looked a bit old, without maintenance, sad, and about to break. My first time here was lovely. After this experience, I will not go back, and recommend everyone NOT TO GO. What happened here is really sad, I feel sad and very disappointed. It was a nice place to stay and have a complete different experience before, but it is not anymore...

Don't go, don't waist your time, don't waist your money.

The highlight is the view, everything else is a let down. I was hoping for a luxe feeling with the prices paid and it sadly turns out to be very casual all around.

Accommodation: The bed was very comfortable. The headboard was coming apart, the bed warmer was broken and needed on our chilly night, and the floor is peeling so shoes are needed to avoid splinters.

Restaurant: The food was okay, under seasoned but not bad, cocktails were a miss. Service staff are under trained and don’t know how to handle simple requests. We had dirty glasses, a wobbly table, mix match silverware, and empty salt shakers. Small misses that could have elevated the experience.

Camp Grounds: The grass was overgrown and dirty cups were everywhere in the communal spaces. The lawn games are broken, dirty, or partially missing. Our tent backed up to a construction pit that was sightly and could have been nicely hidden by a fence. Also would have been nice for the grounds crew not to wake guests up mowing the next door field early in the AM.

Overall: Not the experience we expected though the gorgeous sunset and night lights helped us forget about the mishaps for a moment. Small, easy fixes and some nice additions, like better staff training for friendly customer service and overall maintenance, would make it much more quality.

My husband and I stayed at Collective for my birthday this past weekend. I really hate writing negative reviews, but unfortunately, I had very high hopes for my visit and my biggest concern was my safety, which is a deal breaker for me and likely most others as well.

My husband and I left our tent for dinner and came back to see furniture moved around, food in our bed, all the sides and windows closed, and a very strong smell of marijuana. Clearly someone wanted to have fun turning our tent into a hot box, but the fact that someone could just easily walk in is extremely concerning. We immediately head to the check in area to raise our concerns and all we were offered was a freshly made bed. When we were told we could head back after standing at the check in area for about 30 minutes, we were told that the people who came into our tent were removed from the property, but they were clearly still in the vicinity as we could hear and see them causing a commotion in the area. They were clearly under the influence, but I don’t know if they have anything that could hurt someone. When I asked staff if the individuals were removed from the island about an hour later, I was immediately dismissed for asking about the situation and never received confirmation. No one at the property let guests know when these individuals (who may have gone into other tents too for all I know) were gone. As a result, my husband and I could barely sleep because we were concerned about our safety as we were sleeping in a tent that is simply zippered closed for “security”. No one at the property ever checked back in with us or offered us anything as a result of our safety issue.

While this is an island and there is security for the island, it appears very easy for someone to be able to come in and out of the Collective property. I have no idea if the people who came into our tent were paying guests or not, but all it takes is someone avoiding security when the island closes and the wide open gate onto the Collective Retreats property or the short fences to be able to get on the property.

In addition, the safes in the tents are only slightly larger than a hotel safe. Given the lack of ability to lock the tent space, I would have at least expected a locker sized safe to sufficiently fit our belongings. Were are lucky that none of our belongings were stolen when the unexpected visitors came into our tent.

Also, while not safety related, we paid a fee that included WiFi and we did not have WiFI in our tent.

All in all, safety should be a top priority for any kind of lodging and it simply didn’t exist, which is abysmal for a place that cost us $700 for 1 night.

honestly surprised why anyone would pay this amount for a night here. with the exception of the person who checked us in, the service here is quite lacking and disorganized. no one seems to know what is going on in terms of events or where to go for things. our first night we were excited to do smores but the staff wasn’t well prepared. the person starting the fire had no idea where to go and then there wasn’t anyone at the check in station. eventually someone came but then directed several of us to go to the bar to ask. the person at the bar had seen us asking around earlier but didn’t say anything to us…. frustrating. eventually the person at the bar went to the back to get the ingredients which were just thrown into jars (not the quality you would have expected from how they advertised on their website). then the heating in our tent wasn’t working well. had to play around a lot to get it to work. in the morning we saw it was leaking water near where the wires were which is a dangerous situation. the food here was reported to be great but we found it was severely lacking and super expensive. the duck was not properly cooked and very rubbery. the vegetables were done well though were a bit burnt.